After Standard and Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating in August, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) called for Congress to return immediately from its recess to restore the nation’s AAA rating. [...]

The House held 60 votes during the month of September, and the Minnesota Republican missed them all.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, some-body's been out campaigning and straw polling instead of doing her day job:

Bachmann arrived in the Capitol in time to hold a press conference rebutting Obama, and she left town before the first votes the next morning. Bachmann last voted on Aug. 1.

Kristin Sosanie, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (the state’s affiliate of the national Democratic Party) said that even before Bachmann started campaigning, she'd missed more House votes than any other member of the Minnesota delegation.

But as her spokesperson says, at least she keeps in touch with her staff. That's clearly exactly the same as casting votes that supposedly represent the voters in her district.

Bachmann’s scant voting record complicates her argument on the campaign trail that she is leading the fight against over-spending in Washington.She did not participate in the congressional dispute last month over spending levels for fiscal 2012, and she did not vote on measures to keep the federal government running past Sept. 30.

Of course, the Republican leadership is fine with all this, because Bachmann often votes against her own party. And ours.